1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to protective sports equipment, and more particularly to a glove for use in conjunction with a baseball or softball glove to protect the carpal bones from trauma due to repetitive stress.
2. Description of the Background
Ball games such as baseball and softball that require the catching and throwing are popular with people of all ages and particularly popular with young athletes who compete youth leagues and seek to emulate their professional role models. However, at any level of play a thrown or batted ball can travel at high speed with the potential to injure players trying to catch such balls during practice and play. To combat this, baseball and softball gloves or mitts have long been part of the game as a way to aid the player in catching ball ant at the same time, of protecting the hand.
The conventional large baseball or softball glove currently used for catching is, however, not entirely effective in protecting the hand from the stress received when the ball impacts the glove at high speed. The padding in these large gloves is either insufficient or ineffective long before the glove reaches its maximum utility and players sometimes take additional steps in order to eliminate the sting that the player experiences when catching a particularly hard thrown or batted ball. Some gloves permit the player to remove his index finger from the glove through an aperture located across the back of the glove, thereby placing additionally layers of leather between the index finger and the ball, This slightly increases the padding effect of the glove but only for one finger. Most players don a thin, tight fitting batting glove under their mitt. However, batting gloves are designed for increasing a batter's grip. They are typically made of unpadded calf skin and are ineffective for use as a protective inner glove. Protective palm pads also have been used, but these are difficult t maintain in the proper location and inhibit hand flexibility within the glove because of the indiscriminately positioned and excess padding in the crease areas of the palm. Such shock absorbing protective cushions or pads also suffer from their elastic characteristic which rebounds or propels the ball away from or out of the glove on impact, thereby working against the proper catching function of the outer mitt and hand.
One example of a protective inner athletic glove designed for wear inside a larger baseball or softball glove is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,557,803 to Granich et at, which has shock absorbent, flexible material with shape memory properties covering the fingers, the base of the fingers, and the palm or the metacarpal bones of the hand. In addition, the wrist and forearm section (18, 12, 14) has shock absorbent closed cell foam. Unfortunately the shock absorbent material 22 in the fingers only protects the pads of the fingers but fails to cover the interphalangeal articulations of the hand, e.g., the hinge joints between the finger bones, These are critical areas of the finger inasmuch as these bones are the most vulnerable part of the fingers and need protection. Moreover, padding 22 at the palm is unnecessary and uncomfortable because this area is protected by the padding in the heel of every baseball glove. Also, the wrist guard padding 21 completely surrounds the entire wrist, which is unnecessary and confines movement. All baseball fielders require a certain touch and “feel” from their glove in order to properly do their job, and any protective inner glove detracts from the touch and feel of the baseball glove. This is especially true when the protective inner glove has padding. The key, then, is to minimize the padding, placing it only in areas where absolutely needed, and not placing it elsewhere. It is essential to protect a specific area at the palmar side of the wrist joint. As seen in FIG. 1, the wrist joint, or carpus, is a complex arrangement between the forearm and the carpal bones, stabilized by strong, ligamentous attachments. Not actually a single joint, but rather a collection of multiple joints, the wrist contains eight small, irregularly-shaped carpal bones 90, arranged in two rows, proximal and distal (The eight bones together are called the carpus). There is a midcarpal joint between the two rows, as well as intercarpal joints between individual bones in each row. The distal row articulates with the five metacarpal 91 bones while the proximal row articulates with the two bones of the forearm, the radius 92 and ulna 93, forming the radiocarpal and ulnocarpal joints. In addition, the distal radius and ulna articulate with each other, forming the distalradioulnar (“DRU”) joint 94. The DRU joint allows the radius and ulna to rotate around each other, so that the forearm can be pronated (rotated palm downward) and supinated (rotated palm upward). The movements of the other wrist joints are complex; together they produce the wrist movements of flexion (bending toward the palm), extension (bending backward, also called dorsiflexion), radial deviation (bending toward the radial side), and ulnar deviation (bending toward the ulnar side). The joints of the wrist are enclosed by a fibrous joint capsule, and are further bound together by multiple ligaments which blend with the capsule. Movement of the fingers is carried out by several groups of muscles. The muscles that flex the fingers, primarily flexor digitorum superficialis and flexor digitorum profundus, are located in the palmar aspect of the forearm. These muscles each give rise to four long tendons that pass through the palmar side of the wrist and hand. A total of the nine long flexor tendons (two for each finger and one for the thumb) pass together through a space called the carpal tunnel, the floor of which is formed by the carpal bones, before diverging in the palm on their way to the digits. The median nerve also passes through the carpal tunnel and supplies sensation to the palmar surface of the hand, including the thumb and fingers, except for the little finger and the ulnar half of the ring finger, which are supplied by the ulnar nerve. Blood is supplied to the hand by a complex web of blood vessels passing through both the dorsal and palmar sides of the wrist.
For present purposes it is essential to provide protection for the distal radioulnar joint 94 (FIG. 1) beginning at approximately the wrist crease 96 and extending proximally away from the wrist from one to three inches and preferably approximately 1.25 inches, but not the back or surrounding areas.
The present inventor previously disclosed an improved protective inner athletic glove designed for wear inside a larger baseball or softball glove. U.S. Pat. No. 4,748,690, which is incorporated here by reference, presents an inner glove characterized by protective, non-springy, shock-absorbing cushions covering one or more inner fingers from their base to, at least, the proximal interphalangeal joint, and the upper pain including the distal ends of the meta carpal bones and the metacarpophanlangeal joint. Two optional cushions were also potentially provided to cover full length of the metacarpal bones without inhibiting opposition of the thumb and fifth digit (i.e. the little finger). The cushions were attached to the glove and covered by an outer layer of leather to help protect critical areas of the fingers and palm and reduce the incidence of injury that can occur during long hours of play. Although the inventor's prior protective glove covered the interphalangeal articulations of the hand, it still had shortcomings in that it specifically failed to protect the carpal bones 90 of the wrist. Although it is desirable to catch a ball in the web of the glove, it is common for balls to be caught (or mis-caught) lower on the glove at the lower palm or wrist with the wrist in an extended, pronated position. Repetition of such impacts, studies have shown, result in microvascular changes in the hands of baseball players that results in poor blood flow and a condition called digital ischmia. This, along with direct trauma to the nerves may result in pain, weakness, tingling or numbness in the hand as well as swelling and deformity, particularly of the middle digits. Another risk is fracture of one or more carpal bones. Such fractures commonly go unnoticed in baseball players who then suffer from tears to the ligaments or tendons of the hand from repeated motion over the sharp edges of the fractured bone.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a protective inner athletic glove to be used with a larger, outer baseball or softball glove for catching small, hard balls during play.
It is another object of this invention to provide a protective inner athletic glove with minimal padding only in areas where absolutely needed for protection so as not to impede the natural motion of the hand or reduce player ability to catch.
It is another object of this invention, therefore, to provide a tight fitting protective inner athletic glove with non-springy cushions to enhance the catching characteristics of the outer baseball or softball glove.
It is still another object to accomplish all the foregoing with a protective inner athletic glove having the following specific combination of sufficient non-springy cushions in the following critical areas to protect the hand and wrist on impact thereby reducing the incidence of injury:                a radioulnar cushion the palmar side of the wrist joint beginning at approximately the wrist crease and extending proximally away from the wrist from one to three inches and preferably approximately 1.25 inches;        a carpal cushion beginning at the wrist crease and extending distally to cover the carpometacarpal joint of the hand, and extending in width a distance sufficient to cover the carpometacarpal joint of all five digits.        
Further objects and advantages of this invention will become more apparent in light of the following drawings and description of the preferred embodiment of the invention.